(Yicai) Dec. 18 -- US drugmaker Eli Lilly has won approval to sell its Alzheimer’s treatment in China, the country with the highest number of dementia sufferers globally.

Kisunla, which treats early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, including people with mild cognitive impairment, has received approval from the National Medical Products Administration, the Indianapolis-based company said yesterday.

China is the fourth major market to approve the drug after the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. It is the second Alzheimer’s treatment approved in China this year. Leqembi, co-developed by Japan's Eisai and US-based Biogen, was given the nod in January and costs about CNY180,000 (USD24,700) for a year’s treatment.

Kisunla targets amyloid plaques that can build up in the brain and trigger cognitive decline. Clinical trial data shows that it reduces cognitive decline by 35 percent over 18 months and lowers the risk of disease progression by 39 percent, according to Eli Lilly.

“Bringing Alzheimer's disease treatment options to the people facing its devastating effects is critical,” said Ilya Yuffa, executive vice president of Eli Lilly and president of Lilly International. 

“Kisunla continues to demonstrate very meaningful results for people with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease and can now help to improve the standard of care for people living with the disease in China,” he said.

As of 2021, 17 million people had Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in China, representing 30 percent of the global total, according to a report released this July. Nearly 493,000 people died from dementia in China that year, 25 percent of the total deaths worldwide, per the report, which was produced by a team led by Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.

A report in the Lancet in September said that the number of dementia sufferers in China could rise to 66.3 million by 2050.

Editor: Tom Litting